Southern Ontario should be an innovation cluster, not a farm team

Patrick Deane is president and vice-chancellor of McMaster University. Meric Gertler is president of the University of Toronto. Feridun Hamdullahpur is president and vice-chancellor of the University of Waterloo.

At the Waterloo Innovation Summit in September, Steve Blank pointedly wondered whether we should be content to let Southern Ontario be a farm team, continuing to leak talent, ideas and companies south to the United States. Instead, shouldn’t we try to build an unique ecosystem that generates, attracts and retains talent, and stands tall on the world stage?